Cookie Nookie

I skipped my run today. Not because I wanted to, but because my knee has been nagging me a little. After running through the pain all last year, I'm probably a little hypersensitive about knee tweaks and pains, but I'd rather not take any chances on getting injured. Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day, so I'm hoping two days off in a row will take care of it.

I've been doing a ton of reading about different training methods lately, and I've become really intrigued with the Hansons' Marathon Method. Most training plans have you focus your week on the one long run; but the Hansons' training spreads the miles more throughout the week. It's a high-mileage training plan, but focuses more on running on tired legs, which helps you prepare for the marathon.

The longest run is only 16 miles (could be more or less, depending on pace, but 16 works for the majority of people), rather than the 20 I've done in the past two plans. However, the workouts through the week make your legs tired enough to where the 16 mile long run feels like the last 16 miles of a marathon, rather than the first 16 miles. It's very hard to explain in a nutshell, but the more I read about it, the more interested I am. I'm still 13 weeks out from the race, so I could make the switch if I wanted, and I'm really leaning toward doing that.

My knees don't like runs longer than 14 miles, and I'm really nervous about getting injured once I get into the 16-, 18-, and 20-mile runs. With the Hansons' training, I can't help but wonder if it would be better for my knees. Since I'm going to be running at Andrea's pace during the race, I can afford to try out different plans and see what I like best. I'm really leaning toward making the switch. Mentally, I really think I would like the Hansons' method better, because I get SO nervous for those long runs.

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A few days ago, I was at Wal-Mart when I saw the perfect item to try for Taste Test Tuesday!

Does that not sound like it was made for me?!  As soon as we got home, I got out some spoons so Jerry, the kids, and I could all give it a taste. I was immediately disappointed. I didn't like it--at ALL. I adore peanut butter, and I'm not at all picky about any nut butters, but I didn't like the taste or the texture of this one. Here are the ingredients:

The texture was very soft and oily, which wouldn't have bothered me so much if I liked the taste (for reference, my favorite peanut butter for both taste and texture is Smucker's Natural). The taste was nothing like cookie dough, in my opinion. It tasted almost fruity to me. I liked that there were tiny little chocolate chips mixed into it, but I didn't taste any chocolate at all. I just tasted the strange, fruity flavor, which I think was the chocolate liquor. I wasn't even tempted to take another spoonful.

I will say, though, that Jerry loved it. He said he would have a hard time staying away from it. The kids had different opinions, too--Noah didn't like it at all, but Eli really did. On one hand, I'm disappointed that I didn't like it, but other the other hand, it's a relief! ;)  At least I won't be tempted to buy it again.

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Tonight for dinner, I was really craving fish--totally strange, because I never crave fish--so I made some mahi-mahi. I tried a new recipe for potatoes to go with the fish, and they turned out SO good. I've always loved salt and vinegar chips, so when I saw this recipe for salt and vinegar potatoes, I had to make them.

Instead of using fingerling potatoes, I just cut up regular old potatoes, then boiled them in vinegar, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and put them under the broiler. Jerry and I loved them!

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Motivational Monday #24

I have lots of motivating pictures and stories to post tonight, so I'll jump right in... enjoy!

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Since she started reading my blog in November, Beverly says she's lost 55 pounds and became a runner! She's currently training for her first half-marathon, but she ran her first official race on Saturday, a 5K. She said the race was super hilly, and she was thrilled to finish in 32:14. 

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Thomas shared this picture of his "little brother" (from the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization), Brandon, who ran his first 5K at 10 years old! He'd expected to have to take a lot of walking breaks, but he surpassed his goals, finishing in 36:50. A year ago, he was "completely tanked" after a half-mile race, so the 5K proved just how much of a difference a year can make. By next year, maybe he'll be beating his brother to the finish line ;)  Regardless, Brandon said he had fun and would do it again! (You can read more about Brandon here on Thomas' blog).

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Cindy Jo ran a 5K race this weekend as a training run for a triathlon she's doing next month, and unexpectedly PR'ed her 5K time by 45 seconds! Her kids earned their first race bibs in the Small Fry Trot, too ;)

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After having a baby boy in November, Cynthia started running. She's since lost all of her "baby weight" AND all of her "marriage weight"; she says her husband has never seen her at this size before! She just ran her first 5K, a color run.

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Darby was recently going through old photos, and was very excited to see how visual her weight loss progress is! She's lost 70 pounds, and is in the best shape of her life. She posted more pictures on her blog, "The Difference Between Try and Triumph is a Little Umph!"

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Deb ran an 8K race on Saturday night, and set a PR by 1:32, finishing in 46:00! She added that as of this morning, she is only two pounds from her Weight Watchers goal weight.

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Kacie just ran her first 5K! She only started running five weeks ago, and the furthest she'd run in training was 1.5 miles. She wasn't expecting to be able to run the entire 3.11 distance, but with the support of her sister-in-law (who pushed and motivated her to keep chugging along), she finished in 35 minutes, running the whole way!

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Naleen wanted to share about her husband, Karl, but they both have a lot to be proud of! They've each lost 40 pounds and have become much more active than they were when they got married 4 years ago. Yesterday, they completed a 10K race (along with Naleen's mother); Karl PR'ed by 11 minutes(!) even though the course was much hillier than the course he ran his previous PR on. Naleen and her mom also did great, finishing in 1:06 and 1:01 respectively.

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Not only did Liz wear this shirt, which she hasn't been able to fit into for a few years, but she also purchased her first pair of running shoes!

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Genny's five-year old daughter, Parker, just completed her first Tough Kids Triathlon! Genny says she is very proud of her daughter's commitment to fitness at such a young age, as well as her confidence during the race.

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Rebecca shared her story, which explains the struggles she's gone through, and I didn't want to edit anything out; she's truly gone through some really tough stuff to get where she is today!

"I'm an overweight wife and mom of 4 kids, and I work full time.  I go through spurts of being fitter and spurts of being fatter.  For the past year and a half, I would definitely say I was in a fatter period.  I have put on 40 lbs (after losing it all after the birth of my fourth child) and was just eating very poorly (I am a stress eater, and had been out of work for 3 years after my daughter was born, and we were beginning to struggle financially).

"I started back to work in June 2012, but a couple of months before that I started having unexplained issues with my stomach.  I felt that it was a food allergy, but could never pinpoint a commonality between the occurances.  Fast forward to January of this year, I had one of the worst episodes yet, I went into septic shock among other things and nearly died.  And yet there was still no explanation.  So, about two months later, when I finally started feeling like myself, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

"I started eating better and exercising, and slowly losing the weight.  That's when I came across your blog and decided I wanted to run as well.  So, I slowly began the process (I also have asthma, and never had a great lung capacity) and decided that I needed to register for a 5k in order to truly commit (in October, plenty of time to train).  I had gotten to where I could run 1 mile on the treadmill, and then I had another setback with my stomach.  I was unable to exercise for about 3 weeks, and when I finally got back to it, my legs felt like lead and I just couldn't do it.  I was having a real hard time making myself run on the treadmill, and I was just fatigued all the time.

"In the midst of all this and through various tests, the doctors diagnosed me with Celiac's disease.  It's been rough adjusting, because I also love cakes, cookies, donuts, all of that yummy stuff I can't have anymore.  But now I feel empowered again, and like I can be in charge of my health, by getting rid of the foods that have been destroying my body.  I was never able to do it before, but this new diagnosis has made it easier. I also decided to take to the streets, and started running outside.  So, as of today, I am down 20 lbs and was able to run 2 miles outside!  It was very exciting!  Thank you very much for being so inspirational!"

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Don't forget to check out the Motivational Monday post on Facebook!

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Window washing

As ridiculous as it sounds, I was nervous all night about my tempo run this morning. It's so weird that I get nervous for certain runs (particularly long runs and tempo runs), because I've been doing them for over three years now. I woke up this morning at around 6:00, and I looked at the weather on my phone--70 degrees with 94% humidity! It certainly wasn't the amazing 57 degrees I had the other day, so I decided to get out early, before it heated up some more.

When I stepped outside, I could see that all the car windows were fogged up (from the outside), and the water was actually dripping down the car because it was so humid. Everything felt wet, including the air. I briefly thought about going inside to the treadmill, but I had gotten up at 6:00 on a Sunday to run, so I might as well make the most of it.

I wish I could say I loved every second of the run, but tempo runs are HARD, and I was counting down the miles until it was over. The goal for a tempo run is to keep my heart rate in Zone 3 (163-175); I started out by warming up until my heart rate reached Zone 3, about half a mile in.

I ran out until I reached the two-mile mark, then I turned around and headed home. I ran 3.25 miles at tempo pace (er, heart rate, rather), then I ran slowly to cool down until I got home at mile 4. I was exhausted, and SO hot. I actually went right into the bathroom, turned just the cold spigot on in the shower, and peeled off my wet clothes. The cold water was a bit of a shock, but it felt wonderful! I felt amazing when I was done, and when I looked at my splits, I was really happy with today's tempo:

Splits 1 & 6 were my warm-up and cool down, so my actual average tempo pace was 8:05/mi. A great workout!

My parents took the kids to church this morning, and while they were gone, Jerry and I went to my parents' house to wash their windows. My mom had made an appointment with a window washer (her house has 50 windows!!), but the guy canceled at the last minute. She asked if Jerry and I wanted to do it for $100--sure!

It ended up taking us about three hours, and it was a tough upper body workout! My shoulders and arms are going to be really sore tomorrow, I can feel it already. Jerry went around and did the outside while I did the inside. I was pretty proud of our work when we were done--the windows looked great.

I know that I sound like a broken record lately, but I am having such a hard time staying on track with my diet! I'll do great for a couple of days, and then throw all my cares to the wind and eat way too much. Then, of course, I pay the price for it--not only on the scale, but my running feels harder when I've been eating crappy.

There are 13 weeks until the Chicago Marathon, and Andrea suggested we do a little game/bet to help keep each other on track until the race. My goal is to be at my goal weight (133) on marathon day, so I just have to try really hard to maintain my weight (well, lose a few pounds, actually, because I'm up from all the crappy eating). Before I leave for Chicago, I'll weigh in and if I'm over my goal weight, I'll owe her money for each pound that I'm over (same goes for Andrea).

She does Weight Watchers, too, so we're also going to keep each other in check with our food tracking. For this, we'll do the same thing I did with my sister; for each PP that we go in the negative over the course of a week, we'll owe each other $1. Obviously, the goal isn't to earn money from each other, but to have consequences for binge eating or just going way off track. One binge could set me back quite a bit! ;)  I think that turning it into a "game" like this will be fun.

Jerry starts his new job tomorrow. I'm excited (and nervous) for him! I'm sure he's going to do great, but I just really want him to like it and have no regrets about leaving his previous job. Things are going to be a little different while we adjust to his new schedule, but in the long run, I think it'll be a great change.

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Just a reminder, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you have a health/fitness accomplishment you want to share (along with a photo), feel free to e-mail it to me and I may include it in tomorrow's post. My e-mail is SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) come. Can't wait to see your accomplishments for the week!

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Nine years

Tired doesn't even begin to describe my mood today. Noah and his friends were up until 2:30 in the morning! The living room is right next to my bedroom, so I couldn't sleep for anything. I figured they would all probably sleep in pretty late, but they were up (and wide awake) at 6:30 this morning.

Jerry sat with the kids, and I went to the local bakery to pick up doughnuts for them for breakfast. This bakery has the most amazing doughnuts (my favorite is a peanut butter cream-filled one). The kids said they wanted doughnuts with frosting in the middle, so that's what I bought them (none for me or Jerry).

When I gave them to the boys, they each ate about half, and then said that the doughnuts had too much frosting and they didn't want the rest. I couldn't even understand those words! ;)

The boys' parents came to pick them up at 10:00, and as much fun as they all had, I was relieved to have a semi-quiet house again. Sleepovers are exhausting! My mom said it could be worse, if I had girls. She said that she hated when my sister and I would have sleepovers, because there was so much drama and cattiness that someone always left in tears. Thankfully, the boys at Noah's party all got along very well.

I figured Noah would be super tired today, and possibly fall asleep before dinner, so we decided to go out for a birthday lunch instead of dinner. He chose Chili's, so Jerry and I took both the kids there. On the way, Eli asked me what it was that I ordered last time (when it was just Eli and me that went). I told him it was the Margarita Grilled Chicken, and he said that's what he wanted. I was surprised, but happy that he liked it that much.

Jerry ordered that, too, after I had raved about it before. The boys wanted the pretzel appetizer and the chips and salsa. Jerry and I split one of the pretzel sticks, and I only ate two chips. The pretzels are amazingly good, but I wanted to save my PointsPlus for my meal. I am still amazed at how good that Margarita Chicken dish is, and it's only 14 PP for the whole dish.

I feel kind of bad that we didn't do more for Noah's (actual) birthday today, but Jerry and I were both so exhausted from his sleepover party, that we had a pretty lazy afternoon. We played MarioKart on the Wii with the boys for a little while, and we played a couple of board games that Noah got for his birthday. I love that he's at the age now where he's into the more "adult" board games; I was never a big fan of Candyland or Hi-Ho Cherry-Oh! ;)

It's so strange to think that Noah is nine years old, and going into the fourth grade! When I was pregnant, everyone always told me to enjoy every moment while he's young, because kids grow up so fast. That is a huge understatement. Time has flown by since the day he was born.

Fourth grade was a very tough year for me. That's when my weight ballooned, and kids started to tease me about it. One boy, Richard, gave me the nickname Shamu, and called me that all year. I became very self-conscious, and aware that I was different from the other kids. Because of my experience, I'm really worried about Noah going through teasing like that; there is no reason for me to think that he will, but I just had such a bad experience in fourth grade, that I worry about it. Of course, I'm not letting on to him that I'm nervous.

Anyway, my first-born is now nine years old--next year he'll be double digits, and I can't even think about that right now ;)

He gets his shyness from me; he was a little
embarrassed to be the center of attention while
we sang Happy Birthday to him.

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Noah's birthday party

I was pretty excited to pick up the kids from camp today, but we had to leave at 7:45 in the morning. I knew I wouldn't have time to run later, so I got out of bed at 5:15, even though I was sleeping pretty well last night. I put on my running clothes, and as soon as I stepped outside, I knew that heading out for a run at 5:45 AM was totally worth it... it was only 57 degrees outside!

It felt amazing. The humidity was pretty high when I checked the weather, but it didn't feel like it at all. I ran my favorite out-and-back route, and the whole time, I was thinking how much better I feel when I run in cooler weather. My spirit was high, and when I hit mile two (my turn-around point), I decided to keep going a little further.

I turned it into a lollipop route, and then headed back home. My goal was to stay in heart rate Zone 1 today (135-148 bpm), and that was pretty easy to do. However, check out this huge spike about three miles in:

THAT would be when a black bird attacked my head! It kept diving down, and just brushing against me, which was terrifying, to say the least. I started waving my arms around above my head while running, and I'm sure I looked like a crazy person ;)

 I ended up running five miles instead of the planned four--purely because I was actually enjoying running outside in this weather. I love when I have runs like that!

With the exception of the first mile, my splits were almost dead even...

I'm still amazed when my splits are that even. It never happens that way when I TRY to run even splits; only when I'm not paying attention in the slightest!

After my run, I took a quick shower and got ready for my mom to pick me up. We made the two-hour drive to the camp where my kids were. The kids had a BLAST, and were already asking if they could go to the week-long session next year. They absolutely loved it; I just wish I'd known that earlier, so I could have stopped worrying about them the whole time they were gone.

When we got home, I focused on getting the house cleaned before Noah's friends came over for his birthday party. Noah was really excited about his cake--he loved it, as I knew he would. We got pizza for them for dinner, and as tempted as I was to have some, I need to be careful this week (which I will explain later...). Instead, Jerry and I made sandwiches that turned out to be amazing. We split open whole wheat sandwich rolls, topped them with ham, turkey pepperoni, pizza sauce, and pepper jack cheese, then toasted them in the oven. They were fantastic sandwiches (much better than a piece of pizza), and only 8 PP.


As I write this, Jerry is outside playing baseball with Noah and his friends. I've been overhearing some of their conversation, and it's kind of hilarious. The things that nine year old boys talk about! (Eli isn't here; my dad took him fishing so Noah could have his party without his little brother here). My mom sent me this adorable picture of Eli and my dad cleaning their fish.

So I have a confession to make, and it's a pretty funny story. Yesterday, I bought a container of cookie dough ice cream for Noah's party. It was 1.5 quart-size. It sat in the freezer all day, and last night, it was totally calling to me. Jerry was at work, the kids were at camp, and I kept thinking about that stupid ice cream! I thought, "Well, I'll just have one spoonful." So I ate a spoonful, and it was delicious, of course.

Then I would grab a spoon every time I walked by the freezer. I would just shave a little off the top of the container. Eventually, the whole top inch of the ice cream was gone, and it was really obvious I had been skimming it! So I finally just measured some out into a bowl, ate it, and then had to throw away the rest of the container. (My stomach is bottomless when it comes to ice cream--I could eat a gallon of it and not feel full!)

I can't be the only person that has done that, right?! Thankfully, yesterday was my long run day, so I used up those PointsPlus (plus some of my weekly PP) to cover the ice cream. But that left me without much for the party today, so I didn't have any of Noah's cake. Instead, Jerry and I had a 4 PP Smart Ones peanut butter cup sundae. It was pretty good, but I don't think I would buy it again.

Tomorrow is Noah's actual birthday, and he decided he wants to go to Chili's for dinner instead of Golden Corral, which he mentioned a few days ago--whew! ;)

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Heads or Tails

It was such a gorgeous day outside today! I was so thankful to have some nice weather after all the rain we've had lately. It made the decision to do my long run today much easier. Tomorrow is going to be super busy, and I really don't think I could squeeze eight miles in, so I decided to run eight today (my long run) and then four tomorrow.

When I stepped outside, I was expecting the really humid, sticky air we've had for the past couple of weeks, but it was really nice. My goal was to keep my heart rate in Zone 2, which is 149-162. I fell into a comfortable pace of about 9:15-9:20/mi.

I saw a whole bunch of dead turtles on my run today. It was odd, because they were all along a two-mile stretch of road (not together), and they had been run over by cars. Most of them were teeny tiny turtles (smaller than my palm), but there was one huge one.

I've noticed that I see different dead animals on my runs, depending on the season. At the very beginning of spring, I see toads all over the place. Then after that, I see birds (and even a couple of ducklings or goslings). Now, it seems to be reptiles, because I saw lots of snakes last week and now turtles today. Poor little things!

I ran out four miles, then turned around and came back. I started to feel really good at around mile five. The last mile, I picked up the pace as much as I could while still keeping my heart rate in Zone 2, and finished the run feeling fantastic!

My splits were all pretty even, with the exception of mile four. I'm not sure what happened there.

After my run, I took a quick shower and got ready to go to the state park for a walk with Jessica. I'm glad we decided to get together for a walk instead of coffee or something, because it was SUCH a great day outside. We parked near the entrance and planned to walk a three-mile loop, but while we were walking, we took a little detour, which added another mile or so.

On the way home, I stopped at the store to get the stuff for Noah's birthday party tomorrow. We're going to have a campfire outside with the kids here, so I bought the stuff for s'mores. Noah wants to order pizza for dinner, which is super easy, and I bought a cake mix to make his cake. I'm terrible at baking, so I rarely make homemade cakes; but the kids wouldn't know the difference whether it was homemade or from a box, so a box it was.

I wanted something to decorate it with, so I was looking at candies, but then I ended up buying some Oreos to put on it. Noah loves Oreos, but I never buy them, so I think he'll like it. I just made a two layer cake, slapped some white frosting on the sides, and chocolate frosting on top, then used the Heads or Tails Oreos to decorate. Not the prettiest cake I've ever seen, but I think Noah will like it.

When I was done frosting it, there was half of a can of chocolate frosting left. Before I could even think about it, I squirted some dish soap in the can and threw it in the garbage. I'm glad I did that, because later, I was thinking about how I want to eat all that leftover frosting!

Today was Jerry's last day at the job he's had for nearly 11 years. He said leaving was going to be bittersweet; he is excited about his new job, but he's really going to miss the people he works with. We know the new job is a good thing, but I'm going to be a nervous wreck until he's comfortable there! I just hope that he likes the job and the people he works with.

I'm really excited to see the kids tomorrow, and hear all about camp. I've thought about them all day today, wondering what they're doing, and hoping they're having fun. In the morning, I'm going to try and squeeze in my four-mile run before leaving at 8:00 for the 2-hour drive to get the kids. I should be home by around 1:00, and the birthday party starts at 4:00. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking when I planned the party for the day the kids get home from camp! ;) 

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Shrimp

Today was a very long day! I almost decided not to even write a post tonight, but I just can't seem to NOT write my blog. It's a daily part of my life just like anything else! But I'm definitely going to keep it short. I want to curl up with a big mug of tea and watch Pretty Little Liars ;)

My weigh in this morning was a bust, but that was no surprise. At least I dropped a little of the water weight I'd gained the day before! But I still feel really puffy, so I know the gain is (at least mostly) water.

My diet was off track a lot this week, too, so some of that is legit. But my sister and I are going to start texting our food logs to each other every night again, which helps me to stay accountable. I'm going to have a couple of difficult days this week, because Noah's birthday is on Saturday. He's having a sleepover party on Friday, so I'll make a cake for that. I asked him what he would like for his birthday dinner on Saturday, and he said Golden Corral--blech! I've never even been to a GC, but I hate buffets. I just picture people touching the food, sneezing, and coughing around it. I'm hoping I can talk him into something--anything--else.

I spent all morning getting the kids' suitcases packed and ready for church camp. My mom brought up the idea a few months ago, and I was really nervous about letting them go to an overnight camp, but some of the other kids from church are going and my kids really wanted to go. It's only for two nights, and they'll be together the whole time.

My mom wanted to go with me to take them to the camp (it's a two-hour drive), so she picked us up at 2:00. It was a long drive through all these country roads, but we went through a few cities I've never been to, so it was interesting.

When we got to the camp, we confirmed their registration and went with them to their cabin. We talked with their counselor a little, and I wanted to make sure the kids were comfortable before we left. They were both really excited, so that made me feel better about the whole thing. But until I pick them up on Friday morning, I'm going to constantly be thinking about how they're doing!

We left the camp at 5:00, and I finally got home at 7:00--I was starving. We're running low on our basic groceries, but I really didn't want to go to the store. I started going through the freezer when I found a bag of shrimp. I've been craving shrimp like crazy for a couple of weeks now, so I decided to use it to make my favorite go-to dinner.

This bowl has angel hair pasta, olive oil, garlic, shrimp, peas, and parmesan cheese, for a total of 12 PP. It was the perfect dinner for my shrimp craving.

I think I may do my long run tomorrow instead of Friday. Since Friday is Noah's party, I have to get all of that ready AND leave to pick him up from camp by 8:00 AM. Since it's a step-back week on my running schedule, I "only" have to run eight miles.

Anyway, Pretty Little Liars is calling my name!

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Track workout fail

Last night, Jerry and I went out for pizza with Sarah and Ne. All afternoon, I was hungry, and kept snacking on almonds. Then when we went out for dinner, I ate two pieces of pizza, as planned, and half an order of fried pickles. I knew those things were pretty high in sodium, but I was still totally shocked when I got on the scale this morning and saw a six-pound gain! Seriously, six pounds of water weight overnight. I've been downing water all day to try and get rid of it. I felt really puffy this morning.

Anyway, today was a speed work day. I haven't gone to the track in a while, so I thought it might be fun to go there and take the kids so they could throw around a football or baseball on the football field while I ran on the track. As soon as I stepped outside, I was a little taken aback at how humid it was. It was overcast, so from the house, it didn't look hot outside. But then when I walked to the car, I knew my track workout was going to be tough.

Instead of doing typical 400's or 800's, I decided to make it a little more fun. The kids started playing catch with a baseball, and I started a one-mile warm-up. I was sweating before I even made it around the track once! While I warmed up, I was planning what kind of workout to do, and this is what I came up with:

100 meters fast; 100 meter recovery jog (x2)
200 meters fast; 200 meter recovery jog
400 meters fast; 400 meter recovery jog
200 meters fast; 200 meter recovery jog
100 meters fast; 100 meter recovery jog (x2)

On paper, that's not a very hard workout. That's only a total of 1200 meters at a fast pace (3/4 of a mile). But my goal was really just to have fun with it and not drown in my own sweat from the humidity.

The first 100-meter sprint was actually pretty fun. I felt like I was flying (I love the bounce that the track gives). I thought I'd have plenty of time to recover from it, since the recovery was the same distance as the sprint itself, but I was still pretty out of breath starting the next one. And I had absolutely no clue what pace to run these, since I've never done 100- or 200-meter sprints before.

Turns out, it was TOUGH. By the time I got to the 400 meter sprint, I was really feeling tired. And it was during that lap that the kids started fighting horribly (they can't get along to save their souls). I got so frustrated with their fighting (and tattling while I was trying to run a sprint) that I just decided to stop there and call it a day. So I ran a total of 800 meters at a fast pace--hahaha! I didn't even do enough repeats to get my heart rate up into Zone 4.

I think the combination of being bloated and feeling very heavy, plus the heat/humidity, plus the stress from the kids just made it a bad time for me to do a track workout. However, I really did like running the shorter sprints like that, so I think I may do some other track workouts with a variety of distances like that. Not very helpful for marathon training, but the newness makes it fun!

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For Taste Test Tuesday this week, I bought this stuff:

I've tried a lot of the True Citrus products (I even did a review of them), and because I love anything lime, this looked pretty good to me when I saw it at the store. It's just like those Crystal Light packets, only these are sweetened with Stevia instead of artificial sweeteners. (I really like the Raspberry Lemonade flavor!). But anyway, I mixed a packet of it into a glass of ice water (well, okay, as long as I'm being honest, I may have poured a little tequila in there too).

I was disappointed in this flavor. Because it's labeled a "limeade", I expected it to have that sourness of lime, but the black cherry was the dominant flavor (very sweet). I actually didn't taste any lime flavor at all. Jerry tried it, and he liked it better than I did. I didn't think it was bad tasting, but it just wasn't what I was expecting it to taste like. To be fair, I tried it without the tequila as well, and my opinion didn't change.

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The boys' baseball game was just canceled (yet again). That's the fifth game in a row that has been canceled because of this crappy weather!

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Motivational Monday #23

I hope you've all had a better eating/exercising week than I have! It was actually really hard for me to come up with something I did right this week. After the little bet I had going with my sister was over, I started snacking on things here and there without counting them, and then making bad food choices.

But, I felt AMAZING after yesterday's tempo run, and it pushed me to get back on track before I gain five pounds this week. I am proud of myself for choosing to do my tempo run outside in the humidity, rather than on the treadmill. The treadmill feels so much easier for me, so it was very tempting to do that instead of go outside, where I knew it would be a tough run. But I did it, and I was really glad afterward!

Let's see what some readers are proud of this week...

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This is Shawn, my brother-in-law (Jeanie's husband). He didn't submit this, but I was really excited for him, and just had to share his news. Shawn started running in December, the same time as Jeanie, in order to finish the Virtual 5K for my birthday. He didn't realize it at the time, but Shawn is FAST, especially for a beginner. His first half-marathon was the same race that I flew into Chicago to run with Jeanie in May. I told him that he had some serious potential to win age group awards, and I wrote a training plan for him to focus on speed for shorter distances (which he prefers). Well, here he is after winning second place in his age group on the fourth of July! His finish time for a 2.8 mile race was 19:36--a crazy fast 7:00/mile.

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Ashley ran her first 10K on the fourth of July! She's done a handful of 5K's and a 4-miler, but this was her longest race to date. It rained throughout the first half of the race, and she was very tempted to take the 5K turn-around, but she decided to stick it out. She finished in 1:15:45, more than 4 minutes faster than her goal time!  (Here is a link to Ashley's blog, Tales of a Slow Runner)

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Joy just celebrated her 34th birthday, and was excited to see such a big difference in her birthday pictures over the past few years! She's lost a whopping 94 pounds (by doing MyFitnessPal and exercising--everything from Zumba and Body Pump to running 5K's). 

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Quinlyn was never very interested in running, because she thought it was all about running laps around a gym or on a treadmill. But she thought the Color Me Rad 5K looked like fun, so she started training. She just finished the 5K, and said she had a BLAST! She thinks it's a great race for newbies, because it's such a fun atmosphere.

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Thomas WON A RACE--as in, he was the first person to cross the finish line!  He modestly pointed out that it was a small race, but how many people can say they've won a race? When my kids ask me if I won after a race, it always makes me laugh ;)  He also set a 9-second PR in the half-marathon with a time of 1:39:40. (I'm impatiently waiting for his race report; hopefully it will be on his blog by the time this post goes live).

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Cathy ran her first 5K (a color run), and said, "...tears ran down my face as I ran across the finish line." She never imagined this would be possible; in February, she had three surgeries, and during the last one, her lungs collapsed. She said that just trying to talk to her kids took every ounce of air and strength she could manage. When her doctor finally released her to start exercising, she started walking (losing 35 pounds in the process). At first, she was walking 26 minutes per mile; and she just finished her 5K in 54 minutes!

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Don't forget to check out the Motivational Monday Facebook post, too, for more stories :)

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I'd also like to announce the five winners of the CamelBak Arc Quick Grip handheld water bottles! Congrats to the following:

I've sent you an e-mail, so please make sure you respond. I'll get your info to CamelBak. Enjoy the water bottles!

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A heart rate training run

I'm really enjoying heart rate training. I started doing it a few months ago, but only loosely following it; I would do some runs based on heart rate, but others, I would do based on pace, so I didn't get the full effect. But I finally decided to trust the process and just dive in completely.

The easy runs have been, well, easy. The only goal has been to keep my heart rate below a certain number (in Zone 1), even if it feels ridiculously slow. Zone 2 is for my long runs and steady state runs (a steady state run is slower than a tempo, but faster than an easy run). Zone 3 is for tempo runs. And Zone 4 is for speed work.

Like I said, Zone 1 was very easy to do. Then on Friday, I had to try out Zone 2 for my long run, and it was great. It made me a little worried about my tempo run, though. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get my heart rate high enough and sustain it long enough for the tempo run.

Anyway, today was a tempo run day, so I was nervous to test out Zone 3. I decided to just run until my heart rate reached Zone 3 (162-175 bpm), then run 3 miles in Zone 3, and then cool down until I reached 4 miles total. (So basically, three miles at tempo pace and one mile warm-up/cool down.)

I headed outside early, at 7:00, before it would get too hot. It was already super humid. When I started running, I tried not to start out too fast. It took a little less than half a mile before my heart rate reached Zone 3. I hit the "lap" button on my Garmin to start my tempo miles and tried to hold my pace to keep my heart rate in the zone.

It was a hard run! I really wanted to stop and walk, but I knew, logically, that I could make it through the whole three miles at tempo pace. Tempo runs are supposed to feel hard enough that you want to stop, but you could sustain that pace for about an hour. When my Garmin beeped after the first tempo mile, I saw that I did that mile in 7:56! I was shocked, but happy to see that I was still able to run a sub-8:00 mile after seeing my pace get slower as the days get hotter.

The second mile was a lot slower, at 8:22. That was kind of disheartening, because I was working just as hard (my heart rate was still up in the middle of the zone). During the third mile, I was tempted to try and pick up the pace to be done sooner, but it's better to have even splits, so I tried to keep the same pace.

When I hit the end of the third tempo mile, I was dying to just stop and walk, but I ran slowly to cool down until I made it home. I was pouring sweat, and I sat outside for a couple of minutes so I didn't drip sweat all over the living room. But you know what? It felt AWESOME.

It was then that I realized that I really like heart rate training. Training by heart rate gives me permission to run slowly on my easy run days (something I have a hard time with). Running slowly makes me really enjoy the runs while I'm running. The tempo run itself wasn't very enjoyable (it's hard!) but I felt absolutely fantastic when I was done.

Because I don't have a goal race right now, and I'm not working on a PR or anything, I think it will be fun to see where the heart rate training takes me. I'm going to trust the whole process and see what happens. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's run, because it's going to be in Zone 1--which is very slow and easy.

So anyway, sorry that I've been writing so much about heart rate lately. It's been kind of experimental for me! (If anyone is interested, here is the website where I calculated my heart rate zones. I've tried other zones, calculated various ways, but I like this one the best so far.)

In other news, my eating has been really crappy this week. As soon as my sister and I stopped texting our food logs to each other, I picked up where I'd left off--eating too much, most of it junk. Grr! So I'm going to take some of the advice I wrote on yesterday's blog, and DO IT. I plan on weighing in at Weight Watchers on Friday, so that's an incentive to keep on track.

Tomorrow, we're getting together with Sarah and Ne one more time before they head back to Arizona. I think we're going to go out for pizza and then come play Euchre at my house. The last time we went out for pizza, I did really well--I ate two slices of a small, which I counted as 16 PP total. I plan to do the same thing tomorrow.

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Sorry if you already saw this on Instagram, but I saw this funny card at the store and had to take a picture of it!

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Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday, so if you did something that you're proud of this week, and want to share on the blog, you can e-mail me a pic and a short description (subject: Motivational Monday). I may include it on tomorrow's post!  My e-mail address is SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com.

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